Coconut Beach hotel sale on track

Advertiser Staff

Pleasant Travel Service expects its sale of the 312-room Kaua'i Coconut Beach Resort to close Sept. 3, transferring the leasehold property to Fairfield, Calif.-based Presidio Hotel Group LLC.

The purchase agreement, reported in April, was at least the second attempt in three years to sell the hotel set amid a coconut grove on 10.5 acres in Kapa'a's Coconut Plantation district near Lihu'e Airport.

Presidio, a boutique hotel operator, is expected to spend as much as $20 million renovating the independent hotel, brand it with a major franchise name and help improve Kaua'i's visitor industry, especially the area between Princeville and Po'ipu.

The company is interested in hiring most, if not all, of the hotel's 185 employees, according to a recent filing with the state Department of Labor & Industrial Relations.

California-based Pleasant Travel, parent company of the state's largest wholesale tour operator, Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, also owns the Royal Lahaina Resort and the Royal Kona Resort.